


You Know Rosie? From The Archives?

by iampengwing



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Beholding Avatar Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Canon-Typical Behavior, Canon-Typical Murder, Canon-Typical The Beholding Content (The Magnus Archives), Canon-Typical The Lonely Content (The Magnus Archives), Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Worms (The Magnus Archives), HEY I CAN ADD TAGS I ON MY LAPTOP NOT MY PHONE NOW, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Mentioned Gertrude Robinson, Mentioned Peter Lukas, Not A Fix-It, Please Don't Hate Me, SO let me just say Rosie deserves more love, Spoilers for The Magnus Archives Season 4, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and i decided to do that in the form of angst bc ya know....why not, murder is mentioned bc it's Elias but not described in detail, no beta we die like we're avatars in the apocalypse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28658067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iampengwing/pseuds/iampengwing
Summary: "Hello, my name is Rosie. Paper and pen is for you, please take a seat. I'm here to take your statement."~~~Rosie is the only one from the archives left. No one is sure why or where the others went. Even she doesn't know what happened. But Rosie takes care of the archives and statements. Because even if she is the only one there, someone has to do it.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	1. Been A Hell Of A Ride

Rosie took all the statements now. She wasn't the archivist (that office sat empty, and Jonathan Sims had never officially been replaced.) and she had never been one of the assistants. But no one had seen the Archive's staff in a long time. Even Elias Bouchard had disappeared and left the institute with no head. She was the only one left.

  
Rosie didn't know why she continued to take the statements. It had never been a part of her job before, and it certainly wasn't now. Maybe it was the people who came in. Many of them were still haunted by what they had seen, and Rosie had felt too bad, too sorry for them to turn them away. So she brought them back to her office, and had them write their stories. Rosie never recorded the statements (it felt too much like accepting a job that wasn't meant for her) but she did take them. She comforted the people that came and left, then filed the papers away. For the next archivist, she would tell herself every time she brought a new box of statements down to the now empty basement. For the next person who tried to organize them.

  
Rosie had read countless horror stories and nightmares, but she had never given one of her own. The entire time she had worked at the Institute, every weird thing that had happened, every supernatural attack, Rosie had kept her story to herself. It wasn't until the archives had sat empty and silent for over a year, until any hope of her missing friends returning had died, that Rosie sat down with a tape recorder and tape her story.

  
~~~~

  
_[Statement of Rosie Zampano, regarding the Magnus Archives and it's staff. Statement given November 23rd, 2019.]_

  
The Magnus Archives sure are a weird place. Even before everything happened, the rest of the Institute just kind of left it alone. Part of that might have been Gertrude Robinson and her constantly disappearing or dying assistants. The worms were the first major thing that happened. Or, at least the first one I was there for. I found one in my hair once. I was always so careful, even though I didn't know why. But this one managed to bite me before I killed it. The worms didn't look that dangerous, as many of our visitors had told me, but they were.

  
Jane Prentiss, I was told when it was all over. A woman infested with flesh wearing worms. She had attacked the institute but she had been stopped. The worms died with her, but not before leaving the archives in shambles and many of the staff injured. The rest of the institute was fine, save the odd bite here and there. The archives had just been hit the worst.

  
People disappeared. More than once, people who had come were never seen again. Some were statement givers, disappearing from the archives itself, or disappearing after they gave us their statement. But one was Sasha. She had been in research and artifact storage before transferring to the archives at the request of Jon. But after Prentiss and the worms, she wasn't the same. I could never really put my finger on it, but it was her smile that I noticed. It always seemed… wrong, somehow. Too sharp, too fake. It wasn't Sasha. Jon was actually the one to come and tell me. It wasn't her, but something that had been pretending to be her. It hit the archives hard, but I guess the Not Sasha (what everyone called it, the rare times they actually did talk about her) lent itself to the paranoia.

  
People were always suspicious of each other. Jon was, for lack of a better word, an absolute wreck after they found Gertrude's body in the tunnels. He thought one of the others had killed her, thought they were after him too. He was right of course, but that is beside the point. Tim never trusted him after that. I guess I can't blame him - Jon had done some things I may never have forgiven him for, but I wasn't involved. But the two of them could never seem to have a civil conversation for long. They always ended up at each other's throats, with Martin or Basira being the one to pull them apart.

  
There was one day I can remember where all of the archival staff seemed to be getting along, if only because of how resigned they all seemed. Sometimes I wonder if even then, they knew how their trip would go. I was booking their rooms at the bed-and-breakfast like Elias had asked me, when they walked out of the Archives. Jon was in front of the group, talking quietly with Martin as Martin handed him tea. (Martin made tea constantly, especially when he was anxious.) Tim, Basira and Daisy were behind them. Everyone but Martin seemed ready for the trip and a fight. But I didn't ask. I regret that decision sometimes. It was the last time I saw some of them for a long time. In the end, Basira was the only one who came back from that trip. Jon ended up in the hospital in a coma, and Daisy and Tim were gone, disappeared. The day after they left, Elias was arrested for murder and Peter Lukas took over as head of the institute. And I think that's when we began to lose Martin.

  
And in the end, they all lose themselves. Jon came back. After sixth months in a coma where he everything but his brain stopped functioning, he came back. And he got Daisy back. But they both seemed different. Daisy was quieter, less angry and almost nicer. Jon was… I'm not quite sure if I'm being honest. He had the same look I remember Gertrude having at times. Like they knew something they wished they didn't. But I also remember how absolutely devastated Jon was about Martin's isolation at the hands of Lukas. There were many times he tried to talk to Martin. But towards the end was one of the worst. He was running after Martin, down the corridor past my desk. Jon was calling his bane and reaching for him, but Martin ignored him. He looked absolutely distraught to be doing it, but he didn't respond to Jon. As they passed, I saw a fog surrounding Martin, one that fell off his shoulder and pooled at his feet and growing thicker. I never got to see what happened with that, because everyone disappeared. But I can guess that it was nothing good.

  
There were so many of them. Accidents, murders, statements, statements, statements. An accident is what let the worms in after all. It was an accident that Martin stumbled across Gertrude's body. Both Jurgen Leitner and Gertrude Robinson were killed by the same man, Elias Bouchard, in cold blood. And the statements. Many of those people came to us for help, or some form of comfort, but we could offer them neither. And in the end, those who came for help, often ended up dead.  
But one day, it all vanished. The staff that wandered the halls, the tunnels beneath it, the tapes and recorders, and the statements. Everything that made the archives was just gone. It was like it had never existed in the first place, just an empty basement to the Institute building. And after it all, only one man remained. And if you're hearing this, then you know exactly who I mean.

  
[Statement Ends.]


	2. Things Will Never Go Away In The End

Rosie was no stranger to attacks on the Archives, odd as that may sound to anyone who didn't work there. During her tenure at the institute, she had witnessed multiple different attacks, all by different supernatural entities. (Though now she knew the things she had seen were conduits for the real, far more terrifying powers. Avatars, she had heard Jon call them once.) And that didn’t include the murders and disappearances that no one seemed keen to investigate, least of all the police. But that didn't mean she was prepared for them or used to them. Rosie didn't think she would ever be used to fearing for her life.

It was late one evening, and Rosie was just packing up to leave for the night when it happened. She didn’t even notice anything out of the ordinary at first - with her back to the door, she couldn’t see the green glow beginning to filter out from under the door. But when the all too familiar feeling of being watched came over her, Rosie finally turned and felt as if the world had dropped out from under her feet.

“Oh no, what happened here?” She asked no one but herself, frozen in place as she stared at the door. Within seconds, Rosie found herself running towards it. She had to see, had to  _ know _ what was happening. Even the fact that she was the only one left, and there was no way for her to hold anything off by herself didn’t stop her.

The door opened easily, silently (and maybe that should have tipped her off that this wasn’t a normal attack. The Archives door had never been silent, always creaking loudly whenever it was opened or closed) and down the steps into the basement she went. 

“Is anyone there?” There was no answer, save Rosie’s own voice echoing back at her. That was no comfort to Rosie, not when the feeling of being watched seemed to increase, pressing down on her with every step she descended.

The further into the cold, empty basement she went, the more scared Rosie was. It wasn’t just the unearthly green glow - though that was a large factor. No, it was also the fact that it felt like the Archives was falling apart at the seams. There was no shaking, no sounds that would indicate that anything was off. Just the feeling that something was very,  _ very _ wrong. And, Rosie thought to herself, that was enough.

_ “Rosie.”  _ The sound of her name behind her, spoken in a voice that sounded oh-so-familiar, one that she couldn’t quite put a finger, startled her. She covered her eyes on instinct alone as she turned, though she would never be able to explain why if asked. 

“I knew you would come here. You always were loyal and obedient.” Slowly, Rosie’s hand fell away from her eyes, and she barely managed to hold back a gasp. There, just a few meters away from her, floating just above one of the empty desks, was a giant eye. An honest to God  _ eye.  _ The glow seemed to be coming from it, and she almost thought she could hear whispers. Whispers that sounded a lot like the statements that had started to fill the shelves in the past year. Rosie could feel her own eyes start to glow the same shade of green, could  _ see _ it somehow, as the knowledge of who the eye had been found it’s home in her head. (Rosie had to resist the urge to break down into hysterical laughter.  _ Of course _ this would happen to the Archives,  _ of course  _ **_he_ ** would return like this.) __

“But I am afraid, my dear Rosie, that I have one last task. Just for you.” The voice was almost sympathetic, filled with almost real sorrow. (Later, in the safety of her flat, Rosie would find herself wondering how it had been speaking at all. It didn’t seem to have a mouth.) 

Rosie could hear the fear, reverent and terrified at the same time, in her voice as she responds- “Mr Bouchard…” She can tell how pleased he is at that, hears her name echoing around her. 

Maybe there had been a time Rosie would’ve done whatever he asked without question, trusted him enough to follow blindly. But it had been a long time since she had had that kind of faith in anybody. Too much had happened in the past 6 years, And now, Rosie didn’t want to do anything he asked her to. But she Knew that there wasn’t any way she could refuse. Not anymore.

Elias Bouchard knew that well. Rosie was tied to the Institute, the same way all of the Archival staff had been. That’s why she was still there after all. That’s why she had never left, even after everything that happened. Rosie was bound by her need to know as much as she was by her employment, and not once had he predicted that to play to his advantage. But now, he was glad the receptionist had never quit. Because she was the only one left that he had faith could do exactly what he needed.

“Listen, dear Rosie. Can you find someone for me?”

Rosie would find herself wondering, sometime later in her life, if there had been any specific choice that had led her to that moment. Wondering if there was any way she could have avoided it. Even as she feels herself nod in assent without meaning to, Rosie thinks back through her entire tenure and tries to pick out any decision that seemed important. But she could not pick out any single point that felt larger than life to her, no choice that felt like it had changed her life.

“Good.” The eye - Elias - (she isn’t quite sure what to call him, and is far too afraid to ask at this point) sounds pleased. Excited even. And that scared her more than she cared to admit.

“I need you to find Jonathan Sims.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Long Way Down by Robert DeLong

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, hope you enjoyed that. I have no explanation except I wrote it pretty much without stopping in a notebook then rewrote it in docs.  
> It's based a lot of a comic by veryVal (madvalgo) on Twitter.  
> Uhhhhhh other than that I dont think I have anything else to say. Have a good 2020 level 2 y'all


End file.
